LEICESTER, England :England issued a statement of intent ahead of the Women’s European Championship, demolishing Jamaica 7–0 at home in their final pre-tournament friendly on Sunday.
The reigning European champions dominated from start to finish and although Jamaica had an equaliser ruled out for offside, Sarina Wiegman’s side controlled the match, pushing to settle the game before halftime.
Ella Toone opened the scoring, followed by a headed goal from Lucy Bronze, before Toone again scored deep into first-half stoppage time at Leicester’s King Power Stadium.
The onslaught continued after the interval, with Georgia Stanway adding England’s fourth just before the hour mark, followed by Alessia Russo making it five in the 71st minute.
With five minutes to go, Aggie Beever-Jones added the sixth before Beth Mead capped the rout with a seventh in the dying moments.
“We enjoyed that game today. A lot of goals and a clean sheet. It’s nice to send ourselves off to the Euros,” Toone told ITV.
“We’ve got a talented squad and we’ll step out and give the nation our all.”
Wiegman said her side had produced a “good performance”.
“We expected to be in the final third a lot so we wanted to show what we could do,” she said.
“It was nice to score seven goals though there were times when we played an extra pass. Overall I’m really happy with the performance.”
England begin their Group D campaign against France on July 5, followed by games against Netherlands and Wales. The tournament runs from July 2-27.
“We’ll take it game by game. Let’s go and get ready for France. I think there is huge potential in this squad,” Wiegman said.
